School funding in the new budget

After many months of waiting through complicated and contentious negotiations, a state budget was finally signed into law on Thursday, September 14th! The budget includes some important investments in our public schools, including progress on items that we have been…

What we have to say about accreditation

Our perspective on Virginia’s school accreditation process: Last night in his CNN town hall, Governor Youngkin brought up changes to Virginia’s school accreditation system that were made in 2018 and said that they were responsible for “lowering standards” in Virginia…

Statement in response to House and Senate budget proposals

House Budget Proposals Prioritize Corporations over Virginia Children; Senate Proposals Respond to Student Needs See our map comparing the two budgets here. Virginia lawmakers have a remarkable opportunity this year to significantly improve educational opportunities for our children, who are…

Statement on VDOE’s funding error

This week, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) acknowledged an error in their mathematical formula for funding local school divisions. Reversing this at the expense of Virginia schools would have significant consequences for students — amounting to a reduction of $201 million in state funding over…

Statement on NAEP Results

With the release of the state-level 4th and 8th grade reading and math NAEP results today, it’s clear Virginia’s long-standing underfunding of our highest need schools continues to take a toll on our students. Continued lack of sufficient state resources…

Response to the State Achievement Gap Report

A Missed Opportunity to Highlight Disparities and Effective Solutions On May 19th, 2022, the Virginia Department of Education released a 34-page report on academic achievement in Virginia’s public schools at the request of Governor Youngkin. The Governor presented the report…

FOS Statement on the Conference Budget

Conference Budget Makes Critical Investments in K-12 Public Education, But More Work Is Necessary To Provide A Quality Education to All Students We have issued the following analysis in response to the conference budget proposal following negotiations between the Virginia…